Democrats' ex- IT guy charged with bank fraud: Media not doing their job?

The Hill Reporter Joe Concha weighs in on the lack of mainstream media coverage of the Debbie Wasserman Schultz scandal and how it shows bias.

Former Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s aide, Imran Awan, was arrested on Wednesday on bank fraud charges, but The Hill reporter Joe Concha says the story has been lacking coverage in the mainstream media.

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“This is a story that ABC and NBC decided they weren’t going to cover. That’s called the bias of omission or the sin of omission, and CNN and MSNBC same deal,” Concha told FBN’s Stuart Varney.

Awan, a Pakistani native, was the IT man for Schultz and was paid over four million dollars for his work. He also had access to eight other Congressman’s laptops, along with his brothers.

Concha believes the lack of reporting from media outlets comes from political bias.

“Our political media is broken, Stuart. When this story gets ignored because of party affiliation and nothing more,” he said.

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Awan was kept on payroll after being barred from the House system in February of this year by Wasserman Schultz office, but has recently been fired.

“It’s troubling if when the facts do come out what people knew and what people didn’t do about it if they allowed this person to remain. This is not a good thing,” said former Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray during an appearance on the FOX Business program Mornings With Maria.

Concha reports that 91 percent of Republicans don’t trust the media and 57 percent of democrats believe that the media is too negative towards Trump.

“It’s not so much the coverage in this case, it’s the omission that people see. And they say, ‘What are you doing? You’re not doing your jobs political media,’” he said.

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Awan was arrested yesterday at Dulles International Airport, while trying to flee the country to Pakistan, and plead not guilty.

Christopher Gowen, an attorney for Imran Awan, tells FOX News his client is “devastated” but that federal authorities have no evidence of misconduct by Awan relating to his IT duties. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Gowen said that Awan had purchased his flight ticket to Doha, Qatar two weeks ago, after securing assurances from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Marando that the government had no objections to, and was placing no restrictions on, his travel abroad.

Gowen disputed a Daily Caller report that alleged that federal authorities seized “smashed” hard drives from a property Awan has rented out. Gowen said the authorities had indeed confiscated various items of old and unusable computer equipment from the property, in Lorton, Virginia, but he said “there was nothing on it” and “there was nothing smashed or anything like that.” “There was a mistake on every line,” Gowen said of the Daily Caller’s reporting on the story.

In a separate statement, Gowen’s firm defended their client:

“Because we are confident in the integrity of the U.S. justice system, we are confident that Mr. Awan will soon be able to clear his name and get on with his life. Neither Mr. Awan nor his wife have ever had any intention to “flee” the United States. They are U.S. citizens who have built a full life and have a strong community life in this country. They will stand and fight whatever charges are presented. Once they have prevailed, we will have a chance to more closely examine the ugly political and media dynamics that have driven this controversy from the beginning” - Gowen Rhoades Winograd & Silva, PLLC